Organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Cantonese Opera Day is a government initiative meant to expand the art form for fans and newcomers. In fact, it has been inscribed onto the Unesco List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2009.

The free event will see performances of excerpts from Cantonese opera classics including “Purple Bamboo Forest” from “Merciless Sword Under Merciful Heaven” and “Saving Pei” from “The Reincarnation of a Beauty.” It will also feature talks on the stylised movements and postures adopted in Cantonese operas as well as on the singing styles and musical instruments used. Performing artists will include Lee Lung, Nam Fung, Sun Kim-long.

Hilvinn Wong Hai-wing tells the South China Morning Post that opera has been a part of her life from a very young age. Now at age 32, she will take the stage at the Cultural Centre this November 17th for a performance of “Kneeling by the Pond” – an excerpt from the Ming dynasty drama “Henpecked Husband.”

“My mother took me to see Cantonese opera performances at bamboo theatres when I was a child,” Hilvinn says. “Every time when there was a show, I wanted to go. We would eat snacks and we got to stay out late. But I had no idea what was happening on stage. I just thought it was beautiful and alluring.”

However, some artists say that childhood connection is stalling in modern Hong Kong society.

“As young artists, we must run an extra mile to promote the arts of Cantonese opera among the young generation,” she says.

Dennis Wan Chi-hung, 22, who will be taking part in the performance of “Merciless Sword Under Merciful Heaven” tells the paper that he was also exposed to the art form at a very young age. His father Wan Yuk-yu is also a Cantonese opera artist.

“But when I was in school, from kindergarten all the way to secondary school and university, there was little to no exposure to the art form,” Dennis says. “Students should be taught about the art form. Whether they like it or not, it’s up to them. But at least we will have a chance to have [a bigger] audience. Without an audience, we will not be able to survive.

According to the the Arts Development Council’s latest annual arts survey the audience for Chinese opera, including Cantonese opera programmes have dropped by 1.3 percent between 2015 and 2016 despite an increase in performances in that same period.

In the most tender moments of “Human Flow,” Ai Weiwei’s epic documentary on the worldwide migrant crisis, he is seen hugging, cooking with and cutting the hair of refugees. An ordinary filmmaker might be accused of getting too close to his subject but, as far as the Chinese dissident and internationally renowned artist is concerned, he…

Because, fence-themed art installations are going to be scattered across the five boroughs: All the work of renowned artist and no stranger to controversy, Ai Weiwei. They are part of his exhibit “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors,” set to open Oct.8 and commissioned by the Public Art Fund. It will comprise about 10 major works and several smaller pieces. Together, they will mark one of his biggest efforts to date.

Planned sites for these works include Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens and the Cooper Union building in Manhattan.

But why, fences? On face, it’s a reference to Robert Frost’s popular poem “Mending Wall.”

To Ai, it’s a modern-day political statement.

He tells the New York Times, “When the Berlin Wall fell, there were 11 countries with border fences and walls. By 2016, that number had increased to 70. We are witnessing a rise in nationalism, an increase in the closure of borders, and an exclusionary attitude toward migrants and refugees, the victims of war and the casualties of globalization” – all points likely to elicit conversation and even a few shouting matches.

Looks like Ai came to the right place.

In the last four years, Ai has orchestrated more than 100 exhibitions of his work from his studio in Beijing. They’ve been presented around the world, but Ai had only witnessed them through glass screens on social media posts and on news reports.

“You see some situations through a mirror,” Ai said in a recent interview with CNN. “You don’t see the real thing but you see maybe just a reflection.”

Still, Ai has played a major role in organizing how his exhibitions develop.

For an exhibition last Autumn at Oxfordshire’s Blenheim Palace, curators laser-scanned and 3D-modeled the exhibition spaces giving Ai a virtual world to work with.

“We are very conscious about all the measurements, the height of the room, and what kind of lighting, and how people want to go through from one room to another,” Ai said. “So we work not just as artists but also as curators.”

In the last 11 months, RA curator Tim Marlow and RA co-curator Adrian Locke traveled to Beijing to collect the materials for Ai’s show.

This time, Ai got to experience it in person.

Welcoming him and his guests outside the RA, was The Trees – seven-meter tall sculptures bolted together from the limbs and trunks of dead trees discovered across the mountains of southern China.

In the Academy’s largest room rests 90 tones of straightened metal reinforcing bars, taken from the rubble of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake of 2008 – a tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 5,000 children in collapsed school buildings, and was blamed on poor building practices along with government corruption.

It’s a “very somber and sobering work when you see it,” Locke told CNN, “it has this kind of power and silence about it.”

But, Ai has never been one to remain silent. He’s known around the world for speaking out against the Chinese government, which in 2010 slapped him with tax evasion charges – a $2.4 million tax bill to be exact. His passport was also confiscated.  

Supporters maintain the accusations were fabricated as a way to crackdown on political activists.

After his arrest, he spent 81 days imprisoned in a secret facility, and this experience is reflected through six fiberglass dioramas that make up a work called S.A.C.R.E.D.

CNN writes his arrest came as unexpectedly as the reinstatement of his passport on July 22. It also came with no explanation.

Nonetheless, Ai tells CNN he plans to stay in Europe.

“ … as an artist in defending freedom of speech, in communication, in focusing on the new type of expression that would relate to our daily struggle, or society, or political development, I’ll be always the same, no matter where. I will not change.”.

The authors would include the likes of Tie Ning who is currently the president of China Writers’ Association. Another reputed name in the list is that of Yu Hua. His novel ‘To Live’ was later turned into movie and he will be sharing his experiences about writing in this new theatre.

In collaboration with the Singapore Writers’ Association, these reputed novelists will meet almost 100 local Chinese language based writers at the event. This centre was mainly designed to foster the exchange between China and Singapore in fields of art and culture.

The centre has been designed by Liu Thai Ker who is one of the well known architects from Singapore. The centre was build over a period spanning more than 2 years and it cost more than 200 million Yuan which amounts to over $44 million Singaporean dollars. It is expected that the opening event will be hosted by the top leaders from both the nations.

China wants to have at least 50 such centers by 2020 because it is looking to promote its culture as it wants to showcase its soft power all over the world. The library present on the 6^th floor in this centre is much hyped because it will have more than 40,000 books. The books will mainly be focused upon Chinese history and current affairs and will be opened for public use once the book collection has arrived.

The opening of this centre would be earlier than the Singapore Chinese cultural centre which is located in the Shenton Way and that will happen by end of next year..